Saturday, August 5, 2017

JERUSALEM, A CUP OF DRUNKENNESS TO THE ARABS

By Bill Salus

In
Part one of this two-part study, Jerusalem was explained to be a
burdensome stone to the nations. Part two will address what happens
to the surrounding Muslim nations in Zechariah 12:2. These Arab
states falsely and forcibly contest Israel’s biblically endorsed
sovereignty over Judah and Jerusalem.

“Behold,
I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness, (or trembling), to all
the surrounding (Arab) peoples, (on the right hand and on the left),
when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem.” (Zec. 12:2, NKJV;
emphasis added) ………………………………………………………………………………………………

Land
for Peace Deals ARE NOT Biblically Endorsed! On August 3, 2017, the
Haaretz Newspaper in Israel reported the following,

‘Jared
Kushner Warns 'There May Be No Solution' to IsraeliPalestinian
Conflict’ 2 “President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law,
Jared Kushner, expressed hesitancy at the United States' ability to
broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians…We’re
trying to work with the parties very quietly to see if there's a
solution. And there may be no solution.”

The
36-year-old Jared Kushner, who President Trump appointed as his lead
Middle East peace envoy, has discovered what the former US
Presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barrack Obama were
forced to realize; that finding a diplomatic solution that ends the
Arab-Israel conflict is virtually impossible. These former US
Presidents and their appointed envoys have tried trading the biblical
Promised Land for Mideast peace to no avail, and Donald Trump’s
team is thus far following in the same failed footsteps.

Land
for peace deals are not biblically endorsed! The only diplomatic
solution available to resolve the present Mideast conflict is
described in the prophecy of Jeremiah 12:14-17, which was explained
in part one of this two-part article. 3 Jeremiah 12:16 requires
Israel’s Arab Muslim neighbors to abandon their worship of Allah,
the god in the Koran, in favor of worshipping Jehovah, the God of the
Bible. Under the present Mideast religious environment, this will not
happen!

Jeremiah
12:17 declares, “But if they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up
and destroy that (Arab) nation,” says the Lord.”

Diplomacy
Will Fail and Middle East War Will Prevail.

Jared
Kushner’s assessment of the problematic Mideast peace process, “And
there may be no solution,” is incorrect! Historically, when
diplomacy fails, which it likely will in this case, wars typically
prevail to resolve world and regional conflicts. This is what the
Bible predicts will happen in Zechariah 12:4-6 and elsewhere.

“In
that day, says the LORD, “I will strike every horse with confusion,
and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of
Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. And
the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants
of Jerusalem are my strength in the LORD of hosts, their God.’ In
that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the
woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour
all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but
Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem.”
(Zechariah 12:4-6)

As
a result of the sequence of events detailed in Zechariah 12:2, “in
that day,” the prophet foretells how the Arab-Israeli conflict will
conclude in the above verses. It ends very badly for the surrounding
Arab nations and terrorist populations within them. The Arabs were
duly warned in Zechariah 12:2 to abandon their siege upon Judah and
Jerusalem. Zechariah declared that their struggle to control
Jerusalem would cause them to tremble and reel like a violent
drunkard. However, they persisted in their unbiblical pursuit of
homesteading this holy land. It is safe to presume that these verses
deal with the Arabs, because in both verses 2 and 6, Zechariah
identifies the enemy as the surrounding neighbor nations. He uses the
Hebrew word, “sabiyb,” to distinguish them. This is the same
Hebrew word used in Ezekiel 28:24-26 and 36:3-7 to describe the
neighboring Arab nations that share common borders with Israel.
Zechariah 12:4-6 describes a battle strategy that can never be
incorporated into any nations military manuals except for Israel’s.
It involves a joint military campaign that combines supernatural
intervention with conventional warfare. The Israeli Defense Forces
(IDF) will unleash their superior firepower upon their Arab enemies,
while they simultaneously witness their God Jehovah miraculously
weaken the enemy forces.

The
IDF are depicted as a fiery torch that easily ignites a field of
sheaves. By the time the IDF goes to battle their enemies are
supernaturally reduced to mere kindling for the furnace, “like a
fire pan in the woodpile.” The New Living Translation equates it to
being, “Like a flame that sets a woodpile ablaze.” The
International Standard Version (ISV) translates Zechariah 12:6 as
follows;

“‘At
that time, I will make the leaders of Judah like a brazier filled
with blazing wood, or like a torch setting fire to harvested grain.
They will devour all the invading armies, both on the right hand and
on the left. As a result, Jerusalem will again be inhabited in its
rightful place—as the real Jerusalem.’”

The
Supernatural Sequence of Events that Ends the Mideast Conflict

The
sequence of battle events flows as follows. Please note that my
interpretations modernize the military scenario. Some commentaries
suggest that the world abandons modern day weaponry and regresses
back to the medieval times when wars were fought with horses with
riders who utilized bows and arrows. When Zechariah prophesied there
were no fighter jets flown by pilots, rather, there were horses
arrayed for battle with riders saddled upon them. Thus, these are the
terms he used to describe this war. • First, it appears that the
Lord causes the Arab artilleries, tanks and armored vehicles to
malfunction.

“I
will strike every horse with confusion,” (Zec. 12:4a) This
supernatural battle tactic was proven effective around 3500 years ago
when the Pharaoh of Egypt and his armies were attempting to attack
the Hebrews at the Red Sea crossing. The episode is recorded below.

“Now
it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon
the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and
He troubled the army of the Egyptians. And He took off their chariot
wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians
said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, the Lord fights for
them against the Egyptians.”” (Exodus 14:34-35)

• Second,
these malfunctions apparently create hysteria among the enemy
soldiers like it did to the Egyptians in the above example. “and
its rider with madness;” (Zec. 12:4b) This same result happened in
Judges 7 when Gideon’s 300-man army battled against 120,000
Midianites and prevailed.

“Then
the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they
held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right
hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the Lord and of
Gideon!” And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and
the whole army, (120,000 Midianites), ran and cried out and fled.
When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Lord set every
(Midianite) man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole
camp; and the (panic-stricken Midianite) army fled to Beth Acacia,
toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath.”
(Judges 7:20-22, NKJV; emphasis added)

This
same hysteria will overtake the Ezekiel 38 invaders in the future
according to Ezekiel 38:21. -Third, the Lord will turn His favor
toward the IDF and somehow the radar capabilities of the enemy’s
tanks, jets, rockets, etc. will become disabled. “I will open My
eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every (enemy) horse of
the peoples with blindness.” (Zec. 12:4c)

-Fourth,
the IDF will become emboldened to battle as they witness the enemy’s
equipment malfunction and the Arab armies panic. They will gain
courage as they focus on their fight to regain sole sovereignty over
Jerusalem.

“And
the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants
of Jerusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’”
(Zec. 12:5)

The
Hebrew word for “governors” is “alluph.” It can also be
translated as captain or chieftain.”

-Fifth,
the IDF seem to slaughter the beleaguered and spooked Arab armies on
all sides.“In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a
firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they
shall devour all the surrounding (Arab) peoples on the right hand and
on the left,” (Zec. 12:6a)

-Sixth,
in victory the Jews will end the Arab-Israeli conflict and regain
sovereign control over their holy city of Jerusalem. “but Jerusalem
shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem.” (Zechariah
12:6b) The Zechariah 12 and Psalm 83 Connection Zechariah 12:2, 4-6,
appears to be a minor peripheral prophecy that is intended to find
application to the more major prophecy described in Psalm 83.
Zechariah seems to provide some of the important details that take
place during the fulfillment of Psalm 83.

Psalm
83, which was authored by the Hebrew prophet Asaph over five
centuries before Zechariah prophesied, predicts that a war between
the Arabs and the Israelis will be what resolves the Middle East
conflict. Due to the striking similarities between Psalm 83 and
Zechariah 12, it appears that these two powerful prophecies are
interrelated. Some of these similarities are identified below.

(Map
superimposes the ancient names of the Psalm 83 nations over their
modern-day equivalents. They represent “all the surrounding peoples
on the right hand and on the left” of Zec. 12:2,6), The Arabs form
an alliance against Israel - Zechariah 12:2 says the surrounding Arab
states ally together to lay siege upon Judah and Jerusalem. Psalm 83:
2-8, 12, predicts the same neighboring Arab states will confederate
and devise crafty counsel to destroy Israel to take possession of the
Promised Land. In modernity, we see that this devious Arab plan has
incorporated conventional warfare, as in the cases of the wars of
1948, 1967 and 1971, and It has also included a propaganda war that
has propagated the myth that the Palestinians have just claims to
these Israeli territories. This hype has successfully gotten the
International community to refer to these lands as “Israeli
occupied” territories.

The
Bible endorses Israel’s sovereignty over these areas, but the
Arabs, the Muslim world and the international community opposes
Israel’s rightful claims. This campaign of misinformation has
caused the international community to meddle in the sovereignty of
these areas, which was predicted to occur in Zechariah 12:3. The
Arabs go to war against Israel – Zechariah 12:4-6 describes an
Arab-Israeli War. Psalm 83:4 informs that the Arab’s purpose for
this war is the final elimination of Israel. They say,

“Let
us go and erase them as a nation so the name of Israel will not be
remembered anymore.” (Psalm 83:4, ISV)

The
Arabs are soundly and supernaturally defeated – Zechariah 12:4-6
declares that the IDF are supernaturally empowered to slaughter the
surrounding Arab armies. Psalm 83:9-11 petitions the Lord to do this
very thing. These Psalm 83 verses recount the historical battles that
were fought in Judges 4-8. One of these battles was the underdog
victory of Gideon’s 300-man army over the 120,000 strong Midianite
army. Like the Lord intervened and empowered the IDF to victory in
that historic Gideon battle, Zechariah 12:4-6 will be somewhat of a
repeat performance. Asaph petitioned for this in Psalm 83:9-11 and
the Lord honors this specific request according to Zechariah 12:4-6.

Another
striking similarity is between the following verses. “In that day I
will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and
like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the
surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left.” (Zechariah
12:6, NKJV) “O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like the
chaff before the wind! As the fire burns the woods, And as the flame
sets the mountains on fire,” (Psalm 83:13-14, NJKV)

CONCLUSION:

This
two-part article has taken a different approach to interpreting
Zechariah 12:1-6. The traditional teaching has mostly associated
these verses with events that take place during the 9 campaign of
Armageddon. If that’s the best interpretation, then what we see
taking place in the Middle East is simply setting the stage for
events that happen near the end of the seven-year Tribulation Period.
However, if my view of these verses is correct, then the world is
about to witness the Lord’s supernatural intercession, rather than
America’s diplomatic intervention, to resolve the Arab-Israeli
conflict. I believe that Zechariah 12:1-6 and Psalm 83 are Now
Prophecies, which are prophecies that lack preconditions and could
happen presently. My view is supported by the premise that the IDF is
involved in defeat of the surrounding Arab nations in both
prophecies. The IDF currently appears to be prepared to tackle this
monumental task. Thus, it appears that soon land for peace diplomacy
fails and war prevails to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Moreover,
this Mideast conflict will likely conclude prior to the seven-year
Tribulation Period for the following two reasons. 1. During the first
three and one-half years of the Tribulation Period, Israel is living
in a pseudo peace, which results from the ratification of the
covenant in Daniel 9:27. This implies that the IDF will be mostly
inactive and not warring against the surrounding Arab states. 2. In
the second three and one-half years of the Tribulation Period, the
Israelis are being persecuted in the genocidal attempt of the
Antichrist. This infers that the IDF will be fleeing from the
Antichrist, rather than fighting against their Arab neighbors.